Dante's Inferno Punishment

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The Other Side of Death (An analysis of Dante’s Inferno, whether Hell scares us to be better people.) What is Hell? “It is a place of punishments for sinners. Those who refuse to repent and see the error of their ways will be condemned to an eternity in the hellfires.” (Zagata, Darlene, 2008) One of the best stories about the mystery of what happens in Hell is Dante’s story called the Inferno. This tells of Dante getting lost in a forest, and he comes upon a man. The man is his favorite poet Virgil, who, by Heavens decision, must guide Dante through Hell. Through each cantos, we go through all nine circles of Hell. Some of these circles even have more levels inside of them. Upon entering the gates of Hell, he reads the sign above, it states…show more content…
Betrayal is an act of deliberate disloyalty. There is no Circle for this sin, there are three men who have done this, and they have the worst punishment of all. These men are being chewed by Satan, but he never kills them. These three men are the greatest sinners in history, the first one is Judas Iscariot, he is the one who betrayed Jesus Christ to the King to be hanged. The next two men are Brutus and Cassius; these are the men that killed Julius Caesar in the Roman Senate. Dante explains it in great detail, “In every mouth he worked a sinner between his rake-like teeth. Thus he kept three in eternal pain at his eternal dinner. For the one in front the biting seemed to play no part at all compared to the ripping: at times the whole skin of his back was flayed away.” (Inferno, 285) Judas is the one who suffers the most, his head is facing the inside with his feet kicking out the mouth, while the other two are facing out and do not receive as much crunching. What these men did was undeniably disgusting, why would anyone want to betray anyone, especially betray the best leaders in the world. These men definitely deserve the punishment they are getting for the sin they did commit, and they did not repent for. This does make me want to never betray anyone, because of the consequences that follow. They will follow you for all eternity, and forever is a strong word to think about. Never ending, nothing to look forward to, you will do this every day, all the time, non-stop. “Our lives are built by choices… The more options you have, the more difficult these choices are to make. Since some decisions have long-lasting effects, make these choices carefully, with all the information you need to do what’s best for you.” (Miller, Leslie, 2009) The choices you make on earth, will decide what will happen to you forever. Remember that next time a life decision comes

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